Saturday, January 02, 2010

Copyright Controversy over film 3 Idiots and Chetan Bhagat's Novel "5 Point someone".

Author Chetan Bhagat in his blog post has accused makers of the film '3 Idiots', modelled after his best-selling debut novel 'Five Point Someone', of not giving him credit for the story. Bhagat was paid an amount of Rs 9.9 lakhs for rights of the film, according to a document posted on Chopra's website. As per Chetan film makers added a story credit right upfront, without his name, negating his contribution. He also accused the makers of '3 Idiots' of "copying an original story and claiming it to be different." Film"3 Idiots", which released on December 25, grossed over Rs 130 crore in 7 days and is on its way to becoming one of the biggest hits of last year.

Bhagat, who has written four books so far and is one of India's most successful authors, said he was hurt that the credit for the story of the film went to Hirani and co-writer Abhijat Joshi.

Bhagat, who sold the rights of his book to producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra" by a contract , giving the right to modify or change the story to the producers. The contract also clearly states that credit shall be given to him in the rolling credits of the film, which was duly done," director Rajkumar Hirani said.

Chopra apologised to the media later, but by then the issue had turned into a mini-storm, with television channels replaying footage of his outburst and social networking sites like Twitter abuzz with comments.